GANG OF MOTOR THIEVES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1920, Page 3

GANG OF MOTOR THIEVES

CHASED ALL OVER NEW SOUTH WALES.

( SYDNEY, May 12. ; A gang of young motor thieves—their I ages being 19, 22, 5i2, and 23 respectively—have just led the New South Wales police a merry dance. They were pursued by the police over the greater portion of New South Wales and eventually'run to earth in Queensland. They are now under arrest on a series of charges. The adventure commenced oil April 28th., when a Sydney motor-cycle constable who had been .ip a suburban sergeant’s house for a !'. w minutes, found that his motor-cycle,' side-car, revolver and handcuffs had been stolen. The turnout was found a’ week later in j the bush near a. distant township, dis- | carded. At tlu> same time Senator Cox (otherwise ‘‘Righting Charlie” Cox, Brigadier-General known to all New

Zealanders who fought in Palestine), rt ported .that his garage had been broken into and a big Buiek car stolen. The next day a garage in another suburb was robbed of 16 tins of petrol, and a Chinese gardener was stuck up by motor thieves and robbed of Cob. Thus equipped, the thieves headed into the country, south-west. The police were soon hot on the trail, It was an erratic trail, but not h.'d to follow, ft was marked by a series of thefts—the most common being the breaking into of garages by which supplies of petrol were obtained. For a while the thieves displayed Senator Cox’s number, but when they had had one or two narrow escapes, for the number was telegraphed all over the count v they stole other number plates, and worked the changes, lip and down the highways and byways of the .State the chase proceeded. The police lost their quarry once or twice, but* they were brought back to the track 'by reports of thefts. The thieves got away down by Goulburn and Cowra., and then apparently turned north. They travelled through the northern town very fast, generally moving only at nights, with three detectives in a fast car, only about two jumps behind them. The police everywhere were on the alert, but the thieves showed great ingenuity in disguising their car and taking unfrequented roads. Their tyres wore out, and they broke into a doctor’s garage and stole four more. Then the car fell into serious disrepair, and they abandoned it. broke into a doctor’s garage, secured his Overland and continued their merry career. But the ring of telegrams) and police gradually got round them. . The apparently anxious party of four very travelstained men who appeared in Warwick, South Queensland—the place which immortalised itself by pelting .\l r Hughes with rotten eggs—aroused the .suspicions of file police. They were arrested brought to Sydney, and remanded.'